Tennessee's permit process needs continued oversight

In a year that has seen multiple attempts to deny Tennesseans their right to know what their government is up to, the General Assembly's rapid march toward sealing handgun carry permit records could have the harshest consequences of all.

While other bills would have allowed some meetings of governmental bodies to be conducted in secret, other bills sought to limit distribution of public notices - all serious infringements. But at least none of those touched on lethal force.

Senate Bill 0108/House Bill 0009, sponsored by Sen. Ferrell Haile and Rep. William Lamberth, which has passed the full House and the Senate Judiciary Committee, aims to protect the safety of Tennessee's handgun carry permit holders from a supposed threat of burglars, as well as public embarrassment - but in doing so, it will make it more likely that guns will fall into the wrong hands.

Tennessee has a permit system that works fairly well - especially when you consider that in just the past four years, the number of handgun permits issued has ballooned from 257,000 to 398,000. It's most likely the system works as well it does because it is in the public eye. Tracking the new permit holders is a big job, and ferreting out those who commit a felony after the fact or lied about their history should be a higher priority than closing records, which may or may not have an impact on the security of gun owners.

Politics has clouded this matter, thanks to overeager gun-control advocates on one side and national leaders of the NRA on the other.

In December, The Journal News, a newspaper in Westchester County, N.Y., angered readers by publishing on its website an interactive map of where New York gun owners live.

These gimmicks unnecessarily inflamed the debate.

As journalists at the respected Poynter Institute said, "Just because information is public does not make it newsworthy. People own guns for a wide range of law-abiding reasons. If you are not breaking the law, there is no compelling reason to publish the data."

But it would be an overreaction, with worse consequences, for the state of Tennessee to close its gun records.

The trouble is this: If the public cannot monitor whether the state is properly granting and revoking gun permits on a regular basis, the system will degrade.

We have seen, time and time again in Tennessee, how shielding bureaucracies from scrutiny leads to errors or abuses: in child welfare, in unemployment compensation and in legislative ethics. We cannot afford for another agency to stumble into abuse because no one is watching.

And we know from national surveys that law-abiding citizens, those who own guns and those who do not, want fair and accurate accounting of firearms. But if this bill passes, we may never know that accounting is taking place.

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Tennessee's permit process needs continued oversight

A legislative proposal that aims to protect Tennessee's handgun carry permit holders from a supposed threat of burglars, as well as public embarrassment will make it more likely that guns will fall